“Life
is preserved by purpose; because of the goal its caravan bell tinkles.”

M. Iqbal

Once,
I was asked about my goal in life. Being innocently inexperienced yet an
idealist, I said that ‘My goal is to help the poor and get the blessings of
God.’

A few years later, till now that is, the
goal is still the same. Only that I’ve refined it to the realities of life.
Now, I’ve broken my goal to three ‘typical’ stages:

Short-term goal – to learn and to survive! Ensure that
I’m all equipped with the basics necessities of this life.

Medium term goal – to become a CEO either by setting up
own company or by taking over a company or by painfully climbing the corporate
ladder; whichever is faster and easier. Once there, I would be the one who is
at the position to make policies and give instructions, which I hope (insya
Allah) will be in the interest of Allah’s religion.

Long-term goal – to contribute back to the society by helping / striving towards the
establishing of the Shari’at. This might be too grand. Yet, as Edward Everett
Hale once said:

“I
am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything. But still, I can do
something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the
something I can do.”

How then taking this MBA will help me in reaching
those objectives? ‘Time is short, yet, the things we wish to do are vary and
many’. To this I expect that this MBA in the:

Short time – will taught me tools of finance, the
business world, thus equips me with those skills needed for worldly survival.

Medium range – will expose me to the business
community, as I will meet people from different type of fields and backgrounds.
Moreover, It could develop my decision-making skills and polish my confident as
a calculative risks taker. The two ingredients CEOs are made of.

Long term – will steel my determination to see
that a truly Islamic financial architecture be established. Thus, helping in
removing the elements of riba’ which has so long stifled the muslims minds and
bodies – submissive to the autocracies of secular market.

Thus, the MBA at IIUM is truly the one
that complements my goals. That fits rightly so.